Schedules, TankFest and BIG Announcement | Patreon Update Number 13

Well, I definitely need to make more money in order to survive as I'm currently eating into my savings. Basically, with everything factored in, I need to get to about $1,500 on Patreon. I'll still have taken a pay cut, and I'll still be relying on whatever I can get off YouTube (every little helps), but I can actually live off that. There's been a few new Patreons, and a couple of people have just increased their pledges in the last day or two - including you! Wow, thank you Lars! So it is definitely getting there and I'm very hopeful this can become sustainable soon :)

Oooooh! You scared me 3 months after the fact - I didn't know until tdy. How has it been so far. Are you broke yet? Worry worry...

Very interesting. I don't necessarily think Monty's plan was what set him apart, I think it was his retraining of the troops, the abandonment of the Jock Column idea, the reorganization and the overall preparation of the set-up phase that was the difference. I could be wrong because I haven't studied El Alamein yet, but I suspect that's the difference between him and what came before. And that's not to say Monty was "better" than those other commanders (especially not O'Connor), but that he corrected the mistakes that the British were making before this.

In your discussion with Jen'ari-ashaon you then refer to the positive effect Montgomery had on the Eighth Army (changing the army, transforming them, kicking them up the backside etc). At the Alamein Convention last year Niall Barr (author of Pendulum of War – The Three Battles of El Alamein) made a very interesting remark - on Aug 2nd 1942 Auchinleck actually drew up a similar plan to the one eventually adopted by Monty at El Alamein. So I took a closer look at Barr's published research. This plan can be found on pages 191 & 192 of Barr’s book. It begins with: (i) To make all preparations for a deliberate attack on the extreme NORTH of the enemy’s position.(ii) To disguise this intention by inducing the enemy to believe that when able to resume the offensive we intend to attack in the SOUTH. Overt preparations should be made to this end. (The full document can be found in Barr's Appendix. The original is in the National Archives WO201/556 ). I would suspect that had I showed this outline to TIK he would (like me) have assumed it was the famous Montgomery plan! Barr: “Every single element of Auchinleck’s plan was later followed by Eighth Army under Mongomery’s leadership. The complete text of the appreciation provides the final and conclusive proof that Montgomery’s much vaunted ‘master plan’ for ‘his’ battle of Alamein actually originated with Auchinleck and his corps commanders.” P.192 Monty’s memoirs (which can be read online) are misleading at this point and make no reference to this pre-existing plan. Instead, Monty paints the picture that Auchinleck was negative and defeatist, and was preparing to withdraw to the Delta. (See page 87 of Montgomery’s memoirs.) In fact, even Monty went ahead and strengthened the Delta defences as insurance in case the worst happened.

Richard Stokes